Terminated ribbon coax cable assemblies are used to electrically connect electronic circuits of electronic equipment together. These cable assemblies are bent and twisted thereby subjecting them to stresses which cause the signal and drain conductors of the ribbon coax cable to move relative to one another which can result in breakage of one or some of the conductors at the termination sections of the electrical terminals thereby resulting in open circuits which can be difficult to locate. Moreover, after a length of ribbon coax cable has been removed from a roll of cable and its ends have been terminated in electrical connectors, the cable undergoes relaxation whereby more of the exposed ends of the conductor are exposed and these exposed ends can move relative to one another which can cause shorting of conductors within the connectors.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,444,450, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses a connector which includes a dielectric body member having conductor-receiving passageways along which signal and drain conductors of a ribbon coax cable respectively extend with ends of these conductors being terminated within termination sections of electrical terminals in the body member. Each conductor-receiving passageway has a recess therein which receives a respective projection from a cover member that is secured onto the body member. The projections engage and deform the conductors into the recesses thereby providing strain relief for the conductors.
It has been found that the projections have not provided the desired strain relief on the conductors when the cover members are secured on the body member, because the projections are small and they vary in size as a result of tolerance factors such that they are not able to deform the conductors into the recesses to provide the necessary strain relief thereon. This enables the conductors to therefore move in the conductor-receiving passageways and places stress on the terminations that can result in failure of some of the terminations.